Strike price selection is the second required skill for our covered call writing and put-selling portfolios. Stock (and ETF) selection and position management (exit strategies) are the other two. This article will highlight how we can use overall market assessment and price chart analysis to help guide us to the best strike price selections. […]
Ask Alan #172 – Rolling our Options: 2 Perspectives.
Alan answers a question posed by Roni, who asks: Alan, When our strike is in-the-money at expiration, why not let the option be assigned and realize our profit. When we roll out or out-and-up, we lose threefold: * Lose on the spread * Probably get a debit * Add risk as an appreciated stock can […]
Bear Market Concerns and our Option-Selling Portfolios
Covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts are stock option strategies with primary goals of income generation and capital preservation. Most of us are conservative investors who seek to beat the market on a consistent basis while minimizing portfolio risk. This is one of the mission statements of the BCI methodology. In the past few […]
Market Volatility and Our Option-Selling Trades: Using the VIX to Achieve Higher Returns
Options trading basics teaches us that the VIX or CBOE Volatility Index reflects the market’s expectation of the upcoming 30-day volatility. It measures market risk and is also known as the investor fear gauge. With this in mind, option-sellers are faced with a dilemma. Increased market volatility will translate into higher option premiums because the […]
Managing In-The-Money Strikes When Share Price Moves Higher
When we sell in-the-money call options, we are generating initial time-value profit that meets our stated goals plus creating downside protective of that time-value profit in the form of intrinsic -value. The disadvantage of these options is that we do not benefit from share appreciation because of our contract obligation to sell at the lower […]
Risky Stocks Can Result in Challenging Decisions
Writing covered calls with high-volatility stocks will result in higher premiums. That’s the good news. These securities may also decline substantially below the strike price and cause option premium to pale in comparison to the share depreciation. That’s the bad news. What if these shares move up exponentially, leaving the strike deep in-the-money and we […]
Setting Up a Portfolio of NASDAQ and S&P 500 Stocks In a User-Friendly and Time-Efficient Manner + New Products and Discount Coupons
Many covered call writers and put-sellers favor a portfolio mix of blue-chip and tech companies and turn to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq exchange for locating the best underlying securities. Since this benchmark and exchange total nearly 4000 stocks, locating an elite portfolio can be an overwhelming task. This article will present an approach […]
Reverse Stock Splits: Understanding Contract Adjustments
Contract adjustments to the terms of our covered call writing and put-selling options are due to corporate actions like mergers and acquisitions, special dividends and stock splits. This article will highlight the contract alterations resulting from a reverse stock split. What is a reverse stock split? This is a reduction in the number of […]
Myths and Misunderstandings About Covered Call Writing
Covered call writing education must include debunking the myths associated with this strategy. When certain concepts are repeated often enough, they become accepted as truths whether they are accurate or false. The purpose of this article is to refute five of the most egregious of these misrepresentations. 1. Covered call writing should be used […]
Buyers Have Rights, Sellers Have Obligations: Covered Call Writing in a Nutshell
Covered call writers get paid cash when selling call options. Call buyers pay cash to own the options. This article will highlight the reasons options are bought and sold as it relates to covered call writing. We will use a real-life example with CarMax, Inc. (NYSE: KMX), a stock on our Premium Stock Report on […]
